Not only is No Time to Die an entertaining installment in the James Bond franchise, but it beats out The Rise of Skywalker in terms of being a satisfying conclusion. Originally slated for release back in April of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced many films to change their release schedule several times, with No Time To Die being one of the biggest examples of it. Many theorists were curious how successful the film would be in the wake of its many delays and the Delta Variant, but the movie has made a moderate success for Sony, despite a lower overall gross than all of the previous box offices for Craig's Bond films so far.
Daniel Craig's run as Bond has been defined by its ubiquity and uniqueness compared to the other and slightly less-grounded entries in the long-running super-spy series. While Sean Connery was known for his deft wit and suave appeal, and Pierce Brosnan's era was defined by its science-fiction proclivities, Daniel Craig was the first actor to firmly root Bond in the post-9/11 shadow world of international espionage in the modern era. The movies also explore the psyche of James Bond much deeper than most of the older films, with events like Vesper Lynd's untimely demise and the death of Judi Dench's M in Skyfall factoring heavily into the continuous overarching story.
With No Time To Die, Craig got to do something Bond actors rarely, if ever, get to do, which is have a proper ending. The conclusion of the Craig saga somehow managed to be extremely satisfying in many ways, something that can't be said for another highly anticipated finisher - 2019's The Rise of Skywalker.
No Time To Die Had A Similar Task To Rise of Skywalker
From a certain perspective, both No Time to Die and The Rise of Skywalker were stuck in very similar positions when the time came to start penning the story. The last entry into the Craig/Bond canon, 2015's Spectre, was critically and commercially panned due to its desperate need to connect the dots of Craig's films into an MCU-style shared canon. It felt convoluted and hollow, especially the reveal of Christoph Waltz' joining the list of actors to play Ernst Stavro Blofeld. It was always going to be a challenge writing a film that could give such a disappointing project a proper narrative follow-up while also being a celebration of the decades-old Bond franchise as a whole.
The Rise of Skywalker was similarly preceded by 2018's controversial The Last Jedi, which was a critical success but tore the wider Star Wars fanbase asunder. Many complaints were specifically directed at the fact that the movie took iconic characters in radically different directions, which made it even harder to give it an adequate follow-up while also telling a story that would satisfy the franchise's long-standing fanbase.
No Time To Die Repeats Some Of Rise of Skywalker's Mistakes
Despite being a satisfying experience overall, No Time To Die isn't without its flaws. Not only does the movie have to set up the heavy lifting of introducing Rami Malek's villain, Lyutsifer Safin, but it also wrestles with tying up the loose ends of Blofeld's presence in the previous film Spectre. Because of this, there are points where the movie feels a little stuffed to the brim, juggling its narrative beats with the emotional points it wants to hit to feel like a genuine conclusion.
This is something that The Rise of Skywalker also suffered from as well, trying to cram too much into one movie without giving enough focus to one element. Not only did that film have to try and give a strong resolution to the legacy characters audiences were introduced to back in The Force Awakens, but it also has to attempt to set up Palpatine's return.
Why No Time To Die Succeeds Where Rise Of Skywalker Failed
At the end of the day, The Rise of Skywalker is an inferior movie because there's not much redeeming about it. Aside from being overly convoluted, it's also incredibly derivative in terms of blockbusters, poorly copying its conclusion from Avengers: Endgame. It plays like a movie written by a committee, with the express goal being to load it with as much fan service as possible to win back audiences after the controversial story developments of the previous film. There's no real thematic heart to the movie; everything is designed to be comfortable and familiar, from the return of Palpatine to Rey's decision to become a Skywalker at the end of the movie. In trying so desperately to be referential to what came before it, it loses what makes a good viewing experience.
No Time To Die, on the other hand, manages to offer much more to viewers outside of its problems. Even with the narrative problems posed by Spectre, Cary Joji Fukunaga doesn't ignore his predecessor's film, instead building a strong narrative foundation off of the plotline offered by the previous movie. Instead of simply bringing back a previous villain such as Blofeld or Mr. White, No Time To Die introduces us to a bold new villain with Safin and doesn't concern itself with trying too hard to give fans a checklist of transactional moments.
What it does do is root itself firmly in telling a story that honors Craig's Bond while also taking his character on a journey quite different from anywhere he's been before. Giving James Bond a family is something that has been attempted before (to disastrous consequences for his wife in On Her Majesty's Secret Service), but this is the first time a movie has genuinely gotten a chance to explore the idea in any meaningful way. The result is a film that's emotionally affecting while also being incredibly entertaining in its own right, somehow deftly juggling both the need to pay homage to previous eras of Bond while also bidding a beautiful farewell to arguably the most radical interpretation of the character. Regardless of who follows up the role next, they'll have big shoes to fill after a finale like No Time To Die.